Against a background of diminished public trust in public authorities, fighting nepotism and ensuring impartial recruitment procedures are fundamental requirements. The report adopted on this subject by the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe on 2 April 2019 is part of a comprehensive strategy for fighting corruption and promoting public ethics at local and regional levels.
The Congress invites local and regional authorities to enhance transparency in their recruitment and promotion processes, by establishing clear procedures, guaranteeing equality and fairness. It also encourages them to introduce reporting channels in order to identify potential occurrences of favouritism or conflict of interests. In its recommendation, the Congress further underlines the need for governments to ensure that their legislation includes sufficient provisions to mitigate the risk of nepotism.
“There is an urgent need for local and authorities wishing to counteract favouritism in their recruitment processes to adopt an approach based on risk identification, the establishment of robust preventive mechanisms, compliance with procedures and the sanctioning of misconduct,” said the Congress rapporteur Wilma DELISSEN VAN TONGERLO (Netherlands, SOC).
As part of its roadmap adopted in 2016, the Congress instructed its Governance Committee to prepare 6 reports on the following subjects:
- The misuse of administrative resources during electoral processes: the role of local and regional elected representatives and public officials (October 2016)
- Transparent public procurement (October 2017)
- Transparency and open government (November 2018)
- Conflicts of interest at local and regional level (November 2018)
- The protection of whistleblowers (April 2019)
- Fighting nepotism within local and regional authorities (April 2019)
- Speech by Wilma DELISSEN VAN TONGERLO (Netherlands, SOC)
- Mediabox Interview
*** 36th Session of the Congress ***
